laws, either for her own particular benefit, or for the oppression of the Counties.

By the seventh section, the regular sessions of the Legislature are a little shortened, by changing the time of meeting. The first two Sessions after the adoption of this Constitution are excepted. It will be observed that, by subsequent provisions, the Legislature will be prevented from occupying its time by the enactment of many local and private laws.

The fourteenth and fifteenth sections will give greater publicity to the proceedings of the Legislature.

The seventeenth section embraces some of the most useful provisions that are to be found in the whole Constitution. It relates to the manner of passing laws, to their revision and codification, to the manner of amending the code after it is adopted, and to the simplification and abridgment of the rules of Practice, Pleading, Conveyancing, &c. This State has long been suffering for want of a proper codification of its laws. Several attempts indeed have been made, both with and without the aid of the Legislature, but all of them have proved to be failures; and a great and lasting benefit will be conferred upon the people, if the Commissioners for revision faithfully fulfil the duties assigned to them. While several of our sister States have, for many years past, enjoyed the advantage of a well arranged system of laws, framed to suit their advanced state of civilization and liberty, we yet live under some that were framed more than a century ago, many of which have been abolished in England where they originated. The able Report of Mr. Kilty, made under the direction of the Legislature, shewing which of the British statutes are in force in Maryland, and which are proper to be incorporated into our Laws, will require the attention of the Commissioners for revision.

The eighteenth section takes away the restriction upon the Senate from originating money bills, upon the ground perhaps that, as the reason for such a restriction had ceased, the law itself should cease. The remaining part of this section and the nineteenth section contain new provisions to prevent laws being passed in too great haste, or without the sanction of a majority of the members of the Legislature, the causes for which provisions may readily be found in the history of past legislation in this State.

The twenty-first section prohibits the Legislature from granting divorces, obviously because it would occupy too much time, and because it is properly a judicial act.

The twentieth and twenty-second sections, prohibiting the contracting of Public Debt, or the loan of the credit of the State, by the Legislature, will, it is to be hoped, prevent her fair name from being again tarnished, as it has been, by a failure to meet her pecuniary obligations to creditors at home and abroad. Honor as well in a State as in an individual, ought to be as zealously guarded as Liberty.

The twenty-third section prohibits extra compensation from being given, after a contract is made, as it has been often heretofore.

The thirtieth section fixes the per diem of members and prevents useless expenditures.

The thirty-second section abolishes the office of Attorney-General.

The thirty-third section provides for the protection of the Elective Franchise, further than is provided in the first article, by allowing certain criminals to be disfranchised.

The thirty-sixth section, making duelists ineligible to any office, will tend to check the practice of settling disputes by a most barbarous method. The thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth and forty-fourth sections providing first, for the protection of a wife's property-second, for the exemption of a debtor's property to a certain amount-and third, for the abolishment of imprisonment for debt, will essentially alter the relations of debtor and creditor, and make the reliance upon personal character a more important element than heretofore in mercantile and other transactions, where the credit system prevails. These sections require the special attention of the Legislature.

The fortieth section imposes upon the Legislature the difficult but very necessary duty of adopting some simple and uniform system of charges in the offices of Clerks and Registers, and limits their compensation to twenty-five hundred dollars per annum. The charges heretofore fixed had, by change in the amount of business, and other circumstances, become too high, and the salaries of some of these officers had grown to be

enormous.

The forty-fifth and forty-seventh sections contain provisions in relation to Banks and other corporations, which seem to be perfectly in accordance with the declaration (No. 39) "That monopolies are odious, contrary to the spirit of a free government, and to the principles of commerce, and ought not to be suffered."

The omission of the provision, contained in the Old Constitution, against a tax for religion, was made probably on the ground that in this enlightened age the Legislature did not need to be reminded of the impropriety of it.

ART. IV.-JUDICIARY DEPARTMENT.

The greatest changes in this Department are

1st. The substitution of a term of years for the life tenure of the Judges: 2d. The election of Judges, Clerks and Registers by the people: 3d. The substitution of one Judge for three in the County Courts: 4th. The abolishment of the Court of Chancery.

The two changes first named are owing to the prevalence of such opinions as are referred to in the comments on the Executive Department and on the change of the senatorial term of office; and the other two may safely be said to have been made principally from pecuniary considerations. Several duties are to be performed by the Legislature in relation to this department, which will be pointed out at the close of these notes.

ART. V.-STATE'S ATTORNEYS.

This article is entirely new. It was before observed that a change was made by abolishing the office of Attorney-General; and the provision that those officers who were formerly called his Deputies and were appointed by him, shall be elected by the people, is in harmony with other parts of the instrument.

ART. VI.-TREASURY DEPARTMENT.

The whole of this department has been remodeled. The Comptroller of the Treasury is a new officer designed as a check upon the Treasurer. The former is to be elected by the people and the latter by the legislature. This plan of giving authority to one from one source, and to the other from another, makes them, in a measure, independent of each other; and thereby the danger of collusion is greatly lessened. By the old system there was no such check upon the Treasurer, the integrity of a single individual being the chief and almost the only safeguard of the State in regard to its treasure.

ART. VII.-SUNDRY OFFICERS.

This article provides for the election of sundry officers by the people. The office of Commissioner of Public Works, of whom there are to be four, is a new one. Their duty is to superintend the interest of the State in Rail Road and Canal Companies.

By the fourth and fifth sections it is provided that a Lottery Commissioner shall be elected every two years until 1st April, 1859, when the whole system is to be abolished.

By the sixth section the Commissioner of the Land Office is to be elected by the people, and to perform the duties of the Register of the Land Office and Examiner-General.

The eighth section provides for the election of County Commissioners, and that their powers and duties shall be uniform throughout the State. This is a great improvement upon the existing Acts of Assembly in regard to those officers and their duties.

ART. VIII.-NEW COUNTIES.

By this article one new county is created, and provision is made for the creation of another.

ART. IX.-MILITIA.

Sundry duties are here prescribed for the Legislature in regard to statutes to be passed for regulating the Militia of the State. The present law on the subject is not enforced, and it is comparatively a dead letter.

ART. X.-MISCELLANEOUS.

Among the miscellaneous provisions in this article, those in the first section are particularly to be noted, as being new and useful, viz. that every officer, except the Governor, who receives more than three thousand dollars per annum, for the performance of his official duties, shall pay the balance into the Treasury, and give a statement of his receipts and expenditures. The fact that certain officers heretofore received compensations much too large, led to these provisions.

ART. XI.—AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION.

By this article the mode of amending the Constitution has been entirely changed. The former mode was that amendments must be made by an Act of Assembly passed at one session and a conformatory Act at the next; but hereafter they are to be made by Conventions, elected for this purpose, at intervals of ten years. The principal arguments urged in favor of this latter mode are:-first, that the fundamental law of the State, being superior to all the departments of government, and regulating, among other things, the powers and duties of the Legislature itself, ought not to be under the control of the Legislature or any other department of the government, in order that the equilibrium, and the balances and 11

checks, which have been provided to preserve the independence of the several departments, should not be destroyed, and that one department should not trespass upon the rights of another;-secondly, that the amendment of a Constitution, which is a work of more importance than the ordinary business of legislation, should not be mixed up with this, but be made at a time specially appointed for the purpose;-thirdly, that the Delegates to a Convention to amend the Constitution will be wiser and better men than those of the Legislature.

THE DUTIES OF THE LEGISLATURE.

The duties imposed upon the Legislature, by the provisions of the New Constitution, being numerous and interspersed with various subjects throughout the instrument, it will facilitate references to all or any of them to note them in order.

Some of these duties are required either by the instrument itself, or from evident necessity, to be performed, at the first session of the Legislature after the adoption of it. These may be seen by reference to the following articles and sections, viz.:

Article 3, sections 6, 17, and 40.

Article 4, sections 10, 11, 12, 19, and 23.

Article 10, sections 2 and 6.

Other Duties of the Legislature are prescribed or referred to in the following, viz.:

Declaration of Rights, No. 41,

Art. 1, section 3.

Art. 2, section 8.

Art. 3, sections 33, 38, 39, 48, and 49.

Art. 4, sections 2, 8, 21, and 22.

Art. 7, sections 8 and 9.

Art. 9, section 1.

The author of these brief notes hopes that they may prove, what they are designed to be, some assistance or help to those who have special duties imposed upon them by the New Constitution, as well as to others who may wish to understand the changes it has produced in regard to their rights, civil and political.

EDWARD OTIS HINKLEY.

BALTIMORE, Oct. 11, 1851.